For a Recent RHS Grad, Theater Incident HIts Close to Work

At a recent birthday party with a bunch of first-graders, Alexa Philbrick kept saying how much she loved her job at the Rave Motion Pictures theater complex in Manchester.

She liked the parties - even the ones with boys throwing cake around - and loved taking her friends there to see movies on off days.

But the recent Rockville High School graduate woke up this morning to the news that there was a multiple shooting in a Colorado theater during a premier of the latest Batman movie.

Of course it made her start to think. Batman is there.

"When I heard about the incident in Aurora, Colorado concerning 'The Dark Knight Rises" movie premiere,' I couldn't believe someone could do something like that," she said. "My immediate reaction was to worry about going to work at the movie theater I am employed at as we are showing the same movie."

But she said she will trust that theaters will be made safer.

"In the future, there will probably have to be even more security at movie theaters just like there is now in airports and certain schools because of 9/11 and Columbine," she said. "Unfortunately, this is how the world is having to adapt, because of this senseless violence. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families impacted by this tragic incident."

There is no local movie theater, but Lt. William Meier of the Vernon Police Department said that the Hartford Distributors shooting sprees that will be two years old on Aug. 3, taught those in law enforcement a lesson.

"Certainly our officers are always on guard for incidents like this, especially with the HDI incident that occurred in a neighboring town that several Vernon officers responded to," Meier said. "We train regularly to respond to active shooter events and have equipped our officers for these types of calls."

He said the midnight incident in Colorado is to be handled in its own context.

"We do not have any reason to believe at this time that this is anything other than a lone person in an isolated incident," he said "In other words, we have not been notified of any threats against Vernon or this area."

Here is a sampling of what fans of the Vernon Patch Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/VernonPatch are saying:

"Unfortunately this can happen anywhere at anytime. We can't change our habits because then we all become victims of the 'what if?' I am sure we will hear from people who say this could have been avoided if someone was allowed to carry a weapon and could shoot the suspect. Sometimes despite our best efforts at trying to recognize mental illness, it is missed."

"Should we have stopped going to school when Columbine happened too?"

"This proves that anything can happen anytime, anywhere. I can't live in fear of what has a tiny chance of actually happening to me."

"You cannot live your life in fear! However, I do think it will lead to a further decrease in movie theater attendance."

"I guess we will just have to wear flack jackets were ever we go? Can't really live like that."
 
"I'm waiting for the DVD."